Improvement in melodeons



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

RILEY BURDITT, OF BRATTLEBOROIIGH, VERMONT, ASSIGNOR TO JACOB ESTEY AND HASTEL P. GREEN, OF SAME PLAGE.

IMPROVEMENT Specication forming part of Letters Patent No. 33,275, dated September 10, 1861.

To @ZZ whom, t may concern:

Be it known that I, RILEY BURDITT, of Brattleborough, in the county of Viudham and State ot Vermont, have invented a new and useful Mode of Constructing Melodeons,

Seraphines, and other Similar Reed Instruments; and I do declare that'the following is a full and true descriptipou of my said invention.

The object of my invention is to introduce into such instruments a sub-bass in a compact form, so as not to require an increase of the size ot' the case.

The gure of the accompanying drawing is a vertical transverse section of the part of the instrument constituting` the action.

'Ihe key A when pressed by the performer on the common melodeon presses down the tracker or pitman B, opening the valve O by overcoming the valve-spring D, thus allowing the suction of the bellows to drain a current of air through the socket E.

In my melodeon I supply each ot' the low notes which it is desirable to re-enforce with a sub-bass with another socket and reed of a lower octave. These additional reeds are placed in an upright or vertical socket-board F, which I locate in the rear part of the instrument beyond the bellows and against the inside of the case, and apply the valves directly to the orifice of the socket, as seen at G.

As seen in the horizontal plan, FigxII, I connect the keys A with their corresponding sub-bass valves G by means ot metallic extension-rods H, so that whenever the ordinary note ot' the instrument is sounded the performer will, by the same compression of the key, open the valve G and sound a corresponding or sub-bass note of a lower octave.

To fasten each extension-rod to its key, I bend its end downward at right angles to penetrate the key for a dowel, as seen at I, and hold it in firmly by the head of a screw J, securing by this arrangement the means of easily moving and replacing` the rods.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

l. The placing the socket-board for the subbass notes in the rear ot the bellows an dI in a vertical position.

2. Applying the valves of the sub-bass notes to the upper edge of the socketboard,so that each valve stops a socket at the upper orifice thereof.

3. Elongating the keys by extension-rods to reach the sub-bass sockets, as above specified.

4. Fastening the extension-rods tothe keys by means ot' screws and dowels, the whole combined and operating in the manner and for the purpose herein specified.

RILEY BURDITT. Witnesses:

J. D. BRADLEY, CHARLES K. FIELD. 

